It can be frustrating being a Rick and Morty fan. The series is known for long gaps between episodes and while showrunner Dan Harmon has promised "a season a year now", we still don't know precisely when in 2023 the show will next air. Still, ONI Press have just the thing to tide fans over: a new manga based on the adult animation.
Rick and Morty: The Manga Vol. 1 - Get in the Robot, Morty! is the first in a planned series that offers a different spin on the multiverse-travelling comedy. In this volume, Rick has built an enormous mech suit, which Morty must pilot when an army of "Jiants" - nude, 60-foot-tall versions of his father, Jerry - go on the rampage.
The new book is written by Alissa M. Sallah, best known for her work on Weaboo and as the colorist on Image's Sleepless. It's drawn by JeyOdin, whose ongoing series Hammer is published in manga anthology Saturday AM.
This isn't the first comic based on the series. ONI Press have been publishing Rick and Morty comics since 2015 and the duo previously battled HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu in a mini-series by Jim Zub and Troy Little. Still, this is the first time we've seen these characters in a manga style.
ONI Senior Editor Bess Pallares had this to say: "Rick and Morty has always skewered and elevated pop culture tropes through an irreverent lens, and Get in the Robot, Morty! takes on the beloved genre of mech-fighting manga with that characteristic sardonic flair. Fans of adult animation who've followed from Toonami's Midnight Run to Adult Swim's Rick and Morty are going to find characters, humor, heart, and of course bloody, outrageous battles they know and love in these pages. If anyone could make Gendo Ikari look like a reasonable parent, it's Rick Sanchez."
Pallares also promised that future instalments would, "further sully the good name of manga ... exploring more genres and storylines ready for a shakeup".
Rick and Morty: The Manga Vol. 1 - Get in the Robot, Morty! is out on November 1 from ONI Press.
Here's a first look at some of the pages from the forthcoming manga...
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